VIDEO – San Diego Deputy Collapses After Fentanyl Exposure: ‘I Almost Died’

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department released bodycam video of the moment a deputy was exposed to fentanyl during an arrest in July.

The incident happened July 3 while a patrol deputy processed drugs at the scene, ABC 7 reported Friday.

In the video released Wednesday, Corporal Scott Crane said it was his trainee who was exposed to the substance. It was the first radio call of their shift that day.

In the footage, Crane was heard telling Deputy David Faiivae the drugs might be cocaine or fentanyl, adding, “That’s stuff’s no joke, dude, that’s super dangerous.”

“I was like, ‘hey dude, too close…you can’t get that close to it,'” Crane told the deputy. “A couple seconds later he took some steps back, and he collapsed.”

The clip showed Faiivae fall backward onto the pavement.

“I ran over to him and I grabbed him, and he was OD’ing,” Crane recalled, noting that he quickly grabbed Narcan from his trunk and administered it to the deputy.

“I remember just not feeling right and then I fall back, and I don’t remember anything after that,” Faiivae said. “It was in an instant. My lungs just locked up. I couldn’t breathe. I was trying to gasp for breath but I couldn’t breathe at all.”

In the video, Crane appeared to hold Faiivae’s head off the ground and asked him to talk to him.

“I’m sorry,” Faiivae said, to which Crane replied, “No, no. Don’t be sorry. You’re okay, don’t be sorry. There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’ve got you, okay? I’m not going to let you die.”

Crane described fentanyl as an “invisible killer” and said the deputy would have died if he had been alone.

“Fire department got there, put him on the gurney. His eyes rolled back in his head and he started to OD again,” Crane explained. “He was OD’ing the whole way to the hospital.”

Following the harrowing incident, Faiivae wanted citizens to understand the dangers of fentanyl.

“I don’t think people realize the severity of just how deadly it really is. I’m Deputy David Faiivae and I almost died of a fentanyl overdose,” he stated.

According to the National Institutes of Health, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more powerful.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2020 exceeded the combined fatalities in the world’s top five deadliest armed conflicts during the same period, including Afghanistan and Mexico, according to a Breitbart News analysis from July.

“Opioids, mainly synthetic fentanyl, were the primary driver of the record number of lethal overdoses last year, along with other drugs trafficked across the U.S.-Mexico border, such as methamphetamine and cocaine,” the outlet said.